Join us for "Films in the Forest" at our closing night celebration!

BUSH CINEMA IMORERE HALL, 7 PM SUNDAY JUNE 3

A young girl being raised by her father alone in this beautiful country of New Zealand. She was born in Te Akau on the West Coast in 1978 but due to the death of her mother on the day of her birth her father moved them both to to Auckland, New Zealand where she was raised by him alone. He was emotionally absent through her life due to his own grief so she became independently strong. A story about first love, loss, loneliness and having to make a decision that could change her life forever.

TWO STEPS BEHINDOnehou Strickland 8 min NZ

Pressures from the world they live in begin to make Chris think twice about older brother Mana and himself. Whether he lets this rule their brotherhood will see the course of his life forever.

SONS OF 71Douglas Brooks 2017 12 min NZ

Two brothers meet on the quiet winter streets of small-town New Zealand. A long way from the sweltering heat and chaos of the Vietnam War, a connection with family may be the one thing a returning soldier needs.

UKTENA AND THUNDERJoseph Erb 2017 9 min United States

This story is a very old Cherokee story. Long ago, two boys feed a small starving snake. It grows up to be a large Uktena that fights Thunder.

CALVINGNathan Adler 2017 2 min Canada

Waking up after thousands of years of being encased in ice, the voice of a creature is heard, emerging to find that the world is a much different place, although some things remain the same, he is hungry, and he is still an Apex predator, at the top of the food chain.

NEEMKOMOKDouglas Cushnie 2017 20 min United States

Isadora, an Indigenous Californian (Gabrielino/Tongva) woman, faces a battle to survive after being emancipated from the abusive Los Angeles mission where she was raised in the early 1800's. She's helped by Domingo, a Franciscan friar, on the journey to bring her to a Native village where she can finally be safe.

BUSH CINEMA IIMORERE HALL, 8.30 PM SUNDAY JUNE 3

A TRIBE CALLED RED: THE VIRUSMusic video A Tribe Called Red Canada 2017 3 min

A music video on indigenous futurism themes.

THE VIOLENCE OF A CIVILIZATIONDirector Adam Khalil 2018 10 min United States

An urgent reflection on indigenous sovereignty, the undead violence of museum archives, and postmortem justice through the case of the "Kennewick Man," a prehistoric Paleo-American man whose remains were found in Kennewick, Washington, in 1996.

A man wakes up lost and confused on the beach, and it’s a mystery of how and why he got there. This film was made as a part of an International Two-Spirit, Takatāpui, Indigenous GLBTQ+ filmmaking initiative called 7 Fires. It was collaboration between the Mispon Film Festival (Regina), Wairoa Maori Film Festival (Nuhaka, New Zealand), and the Asinabka Film Festival (Ottawa).

HUIA BOY7 Fires Collective 2017 7 min Canada/NZ

A transformative love story, reflecting the desire for the return of the sacred Huia bird, an extinct species in New Zealand. Made as part of 7 Fires (See HARD OUT).

VIVA DIVADaniel Flores 2017 15 min United States

Rozene and Diva are partners on a road trip to get their gender affirmation surgeries. Along the way Rozene comforts Diva with humor when Diva has trouble reconciling she has HIV. Relying on sex work to pay for their operations, Rozene places an ad on Craigslist as they drive through the place where she grew up.

THE HAMMER AND THE LAMBJules F. Chin Greene 2018 6 min Czech Republic

In a world where multiracial, indigenous children are placed in settlement camps, a young woman escapes one night and encounters a mysterious flickering light. A re-telling of the Biblical story of Moses and the Burning Bush, The Hammer and the Lamb examines the psychology of self-sacrifice for women of color.

G’DAY CUZTom Avery 2017 10min Australia

A man wishes to join a white power group but first must undertake a DNA test. Unfortunately he discovers he is not as white as he thinks is.

BUSH CINEMA: OUTDOOR PROJECTIONS

A spontaneous improvisation with the violin creates a response to the land.

STANDING ROCKGabriel O'Byrne 2017 17 min United States

Minimal in its narrative form, this is a poetic documentary on what life was like at the Standing Rock campsite during the #NoDAPL protests. It does not aim to educate the audience on why the protests were happening, or where the movement lies today. Instead, this film shows in a very non-intrusive manner, the kind of people that stood up to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the kind of environment they were living in.

RALLY FOR JUSTICEHoward Adler (Ojibwa) 2018 12min Canada

This video documents the Rally for Justice held for Tina Fontaine & Colten Boushie on Friday Feb. 23, 2018, on Unceded Algonquin Territory, in Ottawa Canada.

STANDING ROCKGabriel O'Byrne 2017 17 min United States

Minimal in its narrative form, this is a poetic documentary on what life was like at the Standing Rock campsite during the #NoDAPL protests. It does not aim to educate the audience on why the protests were happening, or where the movement lies today. Instead, this film shows in a very non-intrusive manner, the kind of people that stood up to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the kind of environment they were living in.

PART II: INDIGENOUS FUTURISM (8.00 pm)

420 IN MAHIAKahu Kuranui (Māori) 2018 4 min NZ

Take a trippy trip to Zygertron, as Troy Kingi’s beats awaken a world of Māori space age moonlight daydreaming.

ASTRO BLACK DESTINATION PLANET ROCKSoda_Jerk 2008 5 min AustraliaThe three future originators of hip-hop – DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash – are abducted and transported across the galaxy to Planet Rock where they are schooled in the alien language of turntablism.

AGOPHOBIABenjamin Ross Hayden 2013 24 min Canada

A time beyond humanity within a digital world. Agophobia is a new fear of the distant human past in a future where technology has manifested all life. The Ram encounters fantastical beings, engaging to defy his place and escape.

RAGNAROKAgne Agodeme 2017 8 min Lithuania

The storm is coming. The Eagle is captured by the spirit of the doom. A bullet is fired to the eagle’s fatal battle.

The Wairoa Maori Film Festival was founded in 2005 with the purpose of supporting, recognising and presenting the indigenous storyteller narrative. We are a non profit, non political organisation Te Roopu Whakaata Maori i Te Wairoa -Wairoa Maori Film Festival Inc. (c) 2005-2014.